


Dress For the Job You(r Dads Don't) Want (You to Have)

by raving_liberal



Series: Kids and Kids [5]
Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Happy Steve Bingo, M/M, Parenthood, Perfectly Reasonable Parental Fears, Prom, Promposal, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 18:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16792837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: A prom dress dredges up some perfectly reasonable fears.





	Dress For the Job You(r Dads Don't) Want (You to Have)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Steve Bingo Prompt: Promposal

The teenagers of Wakanda had Shuri to thank for prom. When Wakanda opened its borders to the world, certain aspects of other cultures started popping up amongst the Wakandan youth through fashion and slang. American TV shows centering around high school life gained popularity, though more as a matter of ‘look how weird it is!’ than any desire to experience it first hand. Shuri was the one who decided the only part of the education system of the United States worth emulating was prom. The palace hosted Wakanda’s first annual prom the first post-Thanos spring, after everyone was restored. Thus began the tradition, still carried out to this day.

Which was all well and good, mind, except for how Steve and Bucky had already taken Winnie to four different shops, and she still didn’t have a dress for the prom. 

“You know, Olwethu’s mom would probably make her any dress she wanted,” Bucky said, as they followed Winnie into a fifth, and hopefully final, shop. 

“Yeah, well, you know that, and I know that, and Win probably knows that, too, but apparently it’s about _the process_ ,” Steve explained.

Bucky sighed and shook his head. “Some kind of process.”

“Besides, Olwethu’s mom has her own grandkids now,” Steve said. “She’s back in the land of blankets and carriers.”

“Aw, that was such a nice land.”

“How I long for that land.”

“You and me both, Steve. You and me both.”

“Do you think I can wear this shade of blue?” Winnie called from the back of the shop, where she somehow managed to reach without Steve or Bucky realizing she had delved so deep into the belly of the fashion beast.

Bucky and Steve exchanged a panicked look. Steve shook his head rapidly, but Bucky mouthed ‘not it’, which meant Steve _was_ it. 

“Hang on, Win,” Steve said, in the most cheerful voice he could muster. “I’m coming back.”

“You should come up here and look at it in natural light!” Bucky added. So helpful. Steve glared at him over his shoulder. 

Winnie did come to the front of the shop, weaving between racks far more easily than Steve could. She looked beautiful in the dress, so mature and confident, with her hair pinned to the top of her head in a messy bun. The dress itself had a tasteful, classic cut that reminded Steve of the fancy dresses women used to wear to the theatre back in the 40s. The only real problem—

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Bucky said, far too loudly for the middle of a shop. “That dress is Captain America blue!”

“I mean, maybe it’s not _exactly_ Captain America blue,” Steve said, still keeping up his cheerful voice. 

Winnie twirled, and the sunlight reflected off the small star-shaped sequins (which Steve had failed to notice) sewn to the skirt. Bucky laughed as Steve’s forced-cheerful expression fell.

“Yeah, okay, it’s Captain America blue,” Steve conceded. 

Bucky clapped him on the shoulder. “Like father, like daughter.”

“I love it,” Winnie said, uncharacteristically breathless. “It’s my dream dress.” 

“Then I guess that’s the dress we’re getting,” Steve said.

“You know,” Bucky said, cutting his eyes over to Steve, who immediately felt suspicion rising in his chest, “I think a couple of red accessories would really bring out the blue. Maybe some earrings or some kind of hair clip.” 

Winnie nodded, did a little hop-skip-excited-hands dance of excitement, then rushed toward the back of the store to the changing rooms. 

“I never should have married you,” Steve said.

“You love me,” Bucky said.

“I should have moved to the Canadian wilderness and become a hermit,” Steve said.

“You’d hate Canada,” Bucky said. “There’s no me in Canada.”

“That’s part of the draw right now.”

“There’s no Winnie in Canada.”

Steve sighed. “Yeah, okay. You’ve got a point.”

In the end, they purchased the dress, a sheer red shrug, a red flower-shaped hair clip, and a pair of red shoes for Winnie to wear to prom. Bucky laughed quietly the whole way home, while Steve did his best to not picture their daughter kitted out as Captain America, drawn into the whole superhero mess. He knew it was just a dress, that Winnie was wearing it to prom, not to some internationally-televised event where someone might see Steve Rogers’ daughter and get the hare-brained idea to recruit her to their crime fighting organization. Still, it stirred up a fear he didn’t realize he had, that his kid might end up following too closely in his footsteps. 

“Normal parents would worry more about their daughter’s date, probably,” Bucky said, once they were home and Winnie was in her room, excitedly talking to Princesses Ncobe and Nocawe over the video chat, showing off her dress, while Bomvu—who still shouldn’t even be in the house—gamboled about on her furniture. 

“First of all, she’s going with a group,” Steve said. “Second of all, we both know and trust all of her friends. Third of all, we both promised ourselves we wouldn’t be those parents.”

“I know that. I’m just trying to give you some perspective,” Bucky said.

“I don’t want her to ever get involved in the kind of stuff we used to do,” Steve said. Bucky put his arms around Steve and pulled him in close.

“It’s a prom dress, not a uniform,” Bucky said, his forehead against Steve’s. “She’s never really shown any interest in the superhero gig. Nobody’s gonna swoop in here and talk her into taking super soldier serum. Nobody’s gonna kidnap her and give her a metal arm.”

“I’m being unreasonable,” Steve agreed. “I know that.”

“So what’s this really about, then?” Bucky asked. 

Steve exhaled slowly, taking a minute to actually think it over before answering. “We’ve been able to keep her safe here. Sheltered, even. Once she’s grown, though, we won’t have any say in the matter.”

“And prom is like a symbol that she’s almost grown,” Bucky said. “Alright. That makes sense.”

“But it’s not like I’m going to skulk around and spy on her for the rest of her life,” Steve said. 

“I didn’t think you would.”

“She’s just—”

“So much like her stubborn, hard-headed dad, so you worry about her out there in the world?” Bucky offered.

“Yeah,” Steve said. “Pretty much.”

Another week passed, and Steve mostly managed to shove the ‘what if my daughter wants to follow in her fathers’ footsteps’ fear down into the place he kept most of his repressed thoughts and feelings. He half-expected Bucky would bring it up again, because he didn’t usually play along with Steve’s tendency to chin up and pretend like nothing was wrong, but Bucky didn’t even mention it once. Maybe Bucky shared some of Steve’s fears. Maybe he just thought Steve was being ridiculous and that the whole situation was therefore not worth addressing.

The day before prom, as Steve and Bucky stood side-by-side washing and drying the dinner dishes, Bucky said, “So I talked with Dr. Leta.”

“Oh?” Steve took a wet bowl from Bucky and started drying it. 

“About, you know. Your fear that our kid’s gonna want to grow up to become a superhero.”

“You didn’t!” Steve said, setting the bowl in the drying rack a little harder than strictly necessary. “Bucky! Tell me you didn’t say that to the director of Winnie’s school.”

“Okay, so I didn’t phrase it like that,” Bucky admitted. “I just said you were having some completely reasonable concerns about how our—geez, how did I even phrase it—our, uh, _complex personal histories_ might influence Winnie’s choices later in life.”

Steve nodded. “And?”

“She said all the usual. You know. Winnie’s never shown any real interest in that kind of stuff, that she’s well-adjusted, that she seems really committed to pursuing that linguistics degree.”

“That’s good,” Steve said.

“She also said she understands where you’re coming from, and that it can be hard for parents to let go, especially with only children.”

Steve pressed his lips together to stop himself from frowning. “Hmm.”

“ _Also_ , she had a suggestion, and I already ran it by Winnie, so I know it won’t bother her,” Bucky said.

“Oh, God, Buck. What did you do?” Steve asked. He watched in confusion as Bucky dropped down to one knee in front of him. “Bucky, what’s happening?”

Bucky grinned up at him. “Steve Rogers, you big, overprotective moron. Would you do me the honor of being my date to chaperone the prom?”

“Definitely should’ve gone to Canada,” Steve said, as he started to laugh.

“So that’s a yes?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah, Buck, it’s a yes,” Steve said. 

“And hey, now we don’t even have to skulk around or anything!” 

“At least until she leaves for college, anyway,” Steve said. 

“Oh yeah, we’re gonna skulk the _hell_ out of her college campus,” Bucky said. “That’s just plain responsible parenting.”


End file.
